it comes in pints?

I remember reading 'Hell's Angels. What started out as an attempt to goad my totally clenched sphincter parents (by merely leaving the offending paperback laying about) wound up being a really good read. Weren't there some Rolling Stone articles, too? I vaguely recall zipping through those. But that's the extent of my Gonzo immersion. And not really surprised he whacked himself. Would have been if he'd died quietly in his sleep in a retirement home. Flameouts ensure the legend, n'est pas?

Most people who are famous are loons, dude! I love his writing, actually - I think it's a hoot. I was always more into reading his articles, shorter stuff - couldn't take him in book-form. But the short stuff? I liked it a lot. He wrote like a bat out of hell.

I'll have to track some of the articles down, because the book certainly didn't do it for me.

Well, you're obviously not going to agree with his politics - so you probably wouldn't like his shorter stuff either. I always read his articles in Rolling Stone. His prose just ZIPS along.

He was a fucking misogynist, over-indulgent, glutonous, arrogant, rude, loud, wasted, disgusting pig.

I loved him.

When you put it that way, Emily - what's not to love?

Having blogged this, to me, sad news earlier.. I'm in complete agreement with Sheila.. his writing sizzled (I'm not going to mention the politics - but he should have been elected sheriff of Aspen when he stood for that office).. and he had a fantastic eye for great one(or two) liners..

"Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairytale artist. You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."

and

"I don't like to write. I don't care what the fuck happens after I write. Once I've gotten the story in my mind, the rest is pain."

I will try to find some of his shorter stuff. I can appreciate good writing even if I disagree with politics, I just see it in FLCT.

A classic Hunter momnet - he chronicled the 1992 presidential election in a book called Better Than Sex. At one point during the campaign, he promised his literary agent that he would get her Hillary Clinton for her birthday. So he wrote Hillary this crazy letter explaining this to her and basically asking "so how about it?"

[ahem] I just didn't see it in FLCT.

Emily - hahahahaha

I remember one of his biographer's chronicling his average daily intake:

3:00 p.m. rise
3:05 Chivas Regal with the morning papers, Dunhills
3:45 cocaine
3:50 another glass of Chivas, Dunhill
4?05 first cup of coffe, Dunhill
4:15 cocaine
4:16 orange juice, Dunhill
4:30 cocaine
4:54 cocaine
5:05 cocaine
5:11 coffee, Dunhills
5:30 more ice in the Chivas
5:45 cocaine, etc., etc.
6:00 grass to take the edge off the day
7:05 Woody Creek Tavern for lunch- Heineken, two margaritas, two cheeseburgers, two orders of fries, a plate of tomatoes, coleslaw, a taco salad, a double order of fried onion rings, carrot cake, ice cream, a bean fritter, Dunhills, another Heineken, cocaine, and for the ride home, a snow cone(a glass of shredded ice over which is poured three or four jiggers of Chivas)
9:00 starts snorting cocaine seriously
10:00 drops acid
11:00 Chartreuse, cocaine, grass
11:30 cocaine, etc., etc.
12:00 midnight, Hunter S. Thompson is ready to write
12:05 - 6:00 a.m. Chartruese, cocaine, grass, Chivas, coffee, Heineken, clove cigarettes, grapefruit, Dunhills, orange juice, gin, continuous pornographic movies.
6:00 the hot tub - champagne, Dove Bars, fettuccine Alfredo
8:00 Halcyon
8:20 sleep

He would have taken his own life one way or another....

Given that schedule above (which I've also seen before), I was genuinely more shocked to know he had still been alive until today.

Pickled organs tend to get a better run. Look how long Charles Bukowski lived.

I love the specificity of "4:54 cocaine".

4:54.

I love his "snow cones" too.

The "etc. etc." at 5:45 and 11:30 are also amusing.

Cocaine, etc. etc. You know the drill.

Look at how much the guy eats, too! Plus I love the "continuous pornographic movies..." bit. Like porn is his muse while writing or something!

Isn't porn everyone's muse while writing?

I know it's mine. Nothing like "ooo...fuck me, milk man!" in the background to get the creative juices flowing...

"Honey, it helps with my writing! I'm not watching it! I swear!"

"Sweetheart, I love you, but you are such a bloody philistine when it comes to matters of art. You simply do not understand the tools one requires to create."

"There's a fine line between creativity and cum. I choose to walk that fine line. I choose to LIVE on that fine line."

Hahahaha Red! I think I'll save that one for possible future use.

So THAT's what Thoreau meant when he said he wanted to suck the marrow out of life...

My objection to censorship is that it made stuff like Catcher in the Rye popular.
In a really free society Gonzo never would have made it.

Walter,
I'll entertain your idea, which I see as truly foolish, if you'll care to expand on the idea?